Manassas Resident Proves It's Never Too Late

A Manassas resident is fulfilling her dream of becoming a college graduate and will be walking across the stage at George Mason University’s convocation Friday at age 60.

Sixty-year-old Sandra Kellerhals first started taking college-level courses in her early 20s, but like many of us, life got in the way. She got married, had a baby and was working a full-time job, and could not keep up with the workload associated with college classes.

Kellerhals said she decided to go back to school because both her daughter and husband have degrees and she “didn’t want to be the only one” without one. In 2002, Kellerhals’s daughter was getting ready to attend her first year of college and Kellerhals decided she had waited long enough to pursue higher education.

Kellerhals will be graduating from GMU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art History and a minor in Ancient Medieval Art and Archeology.   

 A Mason employee for the past ten years, Kellerhals will now be joining the 2011 graduation class and credits the university with allowing her to achieve her dream of getting her degree. That’s because Kellerhals mainly used Mason’s tuition waiver program, which allows employees to take up to six credits per semester for free—an employment benefit Kellerhals said she could not turn down.

It took Kellerhals nine years to complete her degree, mostly because she worked full-time and could only take classes during her lunch hour or in the evenings. When asked how she feels about finally being able to graduate from college, Kellerhals said she “really doesn’t know how to feel.”

She said it’s all a bit “surreal” and it hasn’t sunk in yet. And maybe that’s because she’s still waiting for her last grade to post online.

In the meantime, Kellerhals is planning for family and friends who are arriving in town for the big day.

Kellerhals, who works in an administrative role in the Office of Academic Outreach in Mason’s College of Health and Human Services, isn’t yet sure how she will use her degree.

She hopes to remain at Mason and is contemplating continuing her education through one of Mason’s graduate degree programs.

“The university itself is very cognizant of adult students and works with them,” she said